HOME

Hey there, friends and strangers,

My name is Jon Michael Swift. I’m a musician first and foremost, though I wear a lot of hats. I’m a teacher, a community art therapist, and an open creative spirit. If you want to know a little more about me…that’s what the About page is for.

I’m probably best known for running a growing YouTube Channel that provides free guitar instruction. I have a few nice serials like Pluck and Chuck Guitar that you can dive right into. You can also look into taking private lessons with me if you like. That gives you an idea of what I’m known for, but my real creative aspirations are more than that.

I have two umbrella projects in my creative life. The first I call “The Outlier Project,” which is an ongoing exploration of the 10,000 hour theory as applied to music practice. In 2010, I began counting the minutes I practiced music, with the goal of developing the ability to improvise fully-arranged songs. More than that, I wanted to chart a path that anybody could follow to the same end. This has led me to explore not only music, but also sociology and psychology, dance and creative therapies. Trying to take music ‘for its own sake’ out of context, it seems to me, destroys what it actually is. It is a way of communicating, evolving, and building community. Also, the journey of learning music is something that is almost impossible to undertake alone, and I find it much less enjoyable without other people on the journey with me.

To open up my interest in creative therapies and transformational art, I’ve been developing a project called “The Listener Effect.” It started as a show where I interviewed people and wrote songs about them, but it has since expanded to encompass all of my research and advocacy about the effects of art on people. That project has its own website in case you’re curious.

I cordially invite you to take a quick tour of the site for more free resources. There are some links in the menus that you might find useful, and you can subscribe to this site for free news/events/updates. Patreon also offers some different and/or premium content, and I usually add a few videos to YouTube and Facebook every week.

Finally, I encourage you to contact me if you’re interested in private lessons or professional collaboration – you can either fill out the contact form or just e-mail me directly. I work with students and collaborators from all over the country via Skype, and it works very well!

That’s it – hope you find some useful resources on JonMichaelSwift.com!

Cheers,

Jon

QUICK HITS

Jon Michael Swift:

Lives, works and performs in central Pennsylvania

Has recently begun dancing ballroom (Latin and Swing fusion)

Plays a lot of instruments and can sing in a lot of languages (though definitely can’t speak all those languages)